News this week: 31 - 2020

OOCL, now part of state conglomerate Cosco Shipping, reported a 1.1% increase year on year in total revenue to $1.6bn in April to June, while liftings dropped 4.6% to 1.7m teu. Liftings on the Asia–Europe and intra-Asia– Australasia routes bore the brunt of the effects of the capacity cuts falling 6.2% and 6.4% respectively. Volume on transpacific services slid 2.2% whereas that on transatlantic services grew 2.2%. 

(Photo of MarineTraffic.com)

Samudera Shipping Line has boosted profits in the first six months of 2020 despite moving lower volumes and generating smaller revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic. Indonesiabased Samudera reported a group profit after tax of $7.3m in the first half of the year, up from $2m in the same period of 2019. Samudera said it responded to government efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in restrictions on the movement of goods across borders, by downsizing its fleet, dropping unprofitable services and reducing frequencies. Container volumes fell 10.5% as a result of its downsizing actions to nearly 571,000 teu, from 638,000 teu in the first half of 2019. Container revenues were cut by 4.3% to $166m, from $174m the year before. (TW)
Spain has been plunged into its deepest recession in modern times by the coronavirus pandemic. Its economy shrank by 18.5% in the April-to-June period, having already fallen by 5.2% in the first three months of the year. The country was the worst performer in the eurozone, which saw its overall GDP decline by a record 12.1%. France's economy has also been badly hit, with GDP there falling by 13.8% in the second quarter. Italy, which was among the first European countries to be hit by the pandemic, has reported a similar drop, with the economy contracting by 12.4%. However, the fall was less steep than expected. Across the EU, the economic contraction was 11.9%. 
The US economy shrank at a 32.9% annual rate between April and June as the country grappled with lockdowns and spending cutbacks during the pandemic. It was the deepest decline since the government began keeping records in 1947 and three times more severe than the prior record of 10% set in 1958. 
 

MKT